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Shelving of Old Age Pension Scheme - SHW
Following is the speech by Secretary for Health and Welfare, Mrs Katherine Fok, in the motion debate on shelving of the Old Age Pension Scheme in the Legislative Council:
Mr President.
Both the Motion moved by Dr Yeung Sum and the amendment put by Dr K C Lam urge the Administration to increase Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) payments for the elderly to $2,500 per month with immediate effect.
As I said in the debate on the Government's Motion earlier this afternoon, the Administration shares fully with Members the view that we should do all we can to ensure that elderly persons in need are given every assistance to live in dignity and comfort. But we also have a responsibility, shared by Members of this Council, to provide that assistance in a way which is sustainable and within our means. We cannot allow the growth in our spending to outstrip the growth in our economy as a whole.
The challenge we face is to address the consensus on increasing support for elderly people in need, while at the same time remaining consistent with our sensible budgetary guidelines.
This Council knows how the budgetary process works. For this reason, I am surprised to hear a call for substantial increases in recurrent spending to be implemented with immediate effect. Those who understand the budgetary process and support our budgetary guidelines will know that such a proposal cannot be accepted. It is not realistic to assume that we can immediately find the additional annual recurrent expenditure of approximately $780 million needed to fund the proposed increase in CSSA standard rates for the elderly. I hope those of you inclined to support this Motion, or indeed the amendment proposed to it, will bear in mind that your responsibilities to the public extend also to ensuring that Government spending is handled in a way conducive to the sound management of our public finances and the
economy.